Requested by hannahmcd2813 Hope you enjoy, my lovely Panda! ;)

Your lungs burned as you took in a gulp of water, struggling to stay above the water. You knew this was a bad idea, swimming out into the ocean by yourself. But here you were, too far from shore for anyone to hear your cries for help. Just great.

Since your mind had enough time to be sarcastic while you were knocking on death's door, your mind also decided to jump back to why you were in this mess to begin with.

It was last week, the guy you've been crushing on for almost a year now had finally noticed you. It was about dang time, you've done almost everything you could think of to get his eyes on you. But he was always so focused on swimming... Not that you minded his swim obsession, that just meant you got to see him in his bathing suit that much more. And hot dog that boy looked so good in his swim suit.

You remembered when you first saw him wearing it. Your best friend had handed you her handkerchief, claiming that you had started drooling over him. You swore that you weren't, but honestly you wouldn't blame yourself if you had. The guy was hot. If only he didn't attend an all boys school... It was your saving grace that you had made friends with his sister, who went to the same school as you, Iwatobi High. You also found out who his friends were in your school as well, turns out it was the whole of the Iwatobi swim team. So you made friends with them as well, which was underhanded, you knew. But you were desperate to have him at least know you existed.

But for a year, he proved to be very dense towards you. He noticed you a few times, but only as an introduction by one of the Iwatobi members. You were close to giving up when you ran into him at a coffee shop last week. You had to stop yourself from squealing when he actually remembered your name!

"(Y/N), right? You're one of Gou's friends." He said, holding a coffee in hand. You smiled brightly and nodded, a light blush spreading across your face.

"Yeah! That's me! (Y/N), a close friend of Gou-chan! And Haru-senpai and Makoto-senpai and Nagisa-kun and Rei-kun!" You mentally kicked yourself, why did you have to start rambling? Was it because this was the first time he was making conversation with you? Probably.

You sighed a bit, you most likely scared him off now... But you were surprised when you heard him chuckle. You looked up at him to see a smile on his face where he normally wore a smirk or frown. You really liked it when he smiled.

"You're cute when you smile like that. You should do it more." He said, stealing your words. You blinked in confusion.

"What?"

"Normally when you're at the swim meets, you're frowning or have a dazed look on your face. You should smile more."

Oh crap, you didn't think he noticed that.

As the two of you talked, he ended up paying for your drink in the cafe and sat with you in a booth. You had no idea what happened, but you liked it.

As a conversation starter, you brought up swimming. He of course went right along with it, and you gave the input you had learned from hanging around all the swimmers in your life now. But it wasn't until he found out that you couldn't swim that well that you started to worry. Would he not like you now that he knew you weren't much of a swimmer?

A few minutes later, Rin had gotten a call from one of his friends saying that they needed his help with something. You felt disappointed, and couldn't help but worry more about what he thought of you now. 

So you came up with the idea to go to the beach on the weekend and practice swimming. You would have just gone to the pool, but the currents in the ocean would have been the perfect practice for you to build strength. You asked some friends if they wanted to go with you, but everyone had declined because they had other things to do.

So you went alone to the beach.  It wasn't that bad at first, but you didn't know there was a drop off after the third sandbar... Not to mention the currents were much stronger than you anticipated. You were dragged further and further out and you didn't know how much longer you would be able to stay afloat.

You could feel your body tiring with each second as you slowly started sinking. So this was it... You were going to die... without even having your first kiss yet.

You closed your eyes as you started blacking out, accepting your fate as your body gave in to fatigue. Just before everything went black, you felt something tug on your arm. It was probably a shark... You thought just before you passed out.

You felt like you were in a tunnel, your body being sucked forward. So this is what death felt like...? Lovely. It tormented you by letting you hear Rin's voice at the end of the tunnel as well. How cruel.

But as you thought everything was over, you started to feel pain in your chest. The burning of water in your lungs was making itself known to you once again, confusing you. There wasn't supposed to be pain in the afterlife, right?

"Princess, come on! Don't you dare die on me...!" A pleading voice called just as there was a sharp pressure on your chest. You wanted to listen to the voice's command and awaken, but your eyes were too heavy to obey you at the moment. But slowly, you felt yourself regaining control of your body. You coughed heavily as you felt the water leave you, causing you to sit up so you could breath better. 

After you had gained air back into  your body, you looked at the angel that had saved you. Your (E/C) eyes widened in surprise when they met pained maroon ones.

"(Y/N)..."

"Rin...?" You croaked, your voice hoarse. "What are you doing here...?"

"Me? What the hell are you doing here, trying to get yourself killed?" You flinched at his harsh words and tone as you sighed and looked down.

"It was stupid, I know..."

It was quiet for a while before you heard him sigh as well. A pair of strong arms wrapped around you and pulled you into a tight but gentle hug.

"Please don't do this again..." He whispered into your hair. You blushed darkly, your heart racing in your chest. 

"O-Okay..."

Rin helped you dry off as you both sat on an empty part of the beach. You could tell he wanted to ask you about what happened and decided to save him the trouble.

"I was doing it so I could be a better swimmer for you... I wanted you to like me more. Swimming in the ocean is the best way to quickly build endurance for it."

It was quiet for a long time before you heard Rin sigh. "Seriously? (Y/N), I already like you... But even if I didn't, going swimming out like that was a horrible idea. You could have really died if I hadn't seen you out there. You should have brought one of the Iwatobi crew with you. Never swim alone at the beach."

You sighed and nodded. "Hai..."

You felt arms wrap around you and pull you close against a strong chest. You looked back to him with an eyebrow raised and a dark blush on your cheek, only to see that shark-like smirk on his lips.

"So you risked your life just to get me to like you huh...?"

Your whole face was engulfed in flames as you looked away in embarrassment. "I d-don't know wh-what you're talking about....!"

"Your explanation~. You said you were doing it to impress me~."

You turned into a stuttering mess as you closed your eyes tightly. You were caught and extremely embarrassed. But then something occurred to you.

"You said you liked me...?"

It was his turn to blush, his face now as red as his hair. "Y-yes... I do..."

"How come you never told me?"

"Well... I was going to wait until after I won the next race to tell you... But now..." He chuckled nervously, "Princess, do you want to go on a date with me?"

You smiled brightly as you turned in his arms, wrapping yours around his neck and hugging him tightly.

"Yes! I would love to!"